Acceptance
by someunknownclevername
Summary: Mackenzie Rush was just a normal muggle until the day that she found out that she was actually a witch. But when she gets sent to Hogwarts, she discovers that not everyone is accepting of her parentage or her new house... Marauders' Era
1. Prologue

**A/N This is my first story. I've already written the first few chapters- please try to stick it out, I swear it gets better after the first few. Any tips or other reviews would be appreciated...**

Mackenzie Rush was so excited that she was literally shaking by the time that she and her mother reached the train station. She was also very nervous- what if the other wizards didn't like her?- but it was outweighed by her anticipation. Because, after all, it wasn't every day that Mac began wizard school. Because that was what she was: a wizard. Well, actually, she was a witch, but that was besides the point. Plus, she was just happy to be getting out of her house, as her parents had been distancing themselves ever since they had found out that she was a witch.

She had been shocked when the huge man- she thought his name was Hagrid or something- told her she was a witch. She hadn't believed him, until he had shown her that it was true with his pink umbrella. Her parents had been shocked and appalled when her they found out about her abilities.

She hurried ahead of her mother (her father hadn't wanted to come), wanting to see the Hogwarts Express. She was momentarily confused when she reached platform 9, trying to remember where platform 9 and ¾, where she had been instructed to go, was. She thought back to the strange, huge man who had told her that she was a witch. Oh,yes. She remembered.

Mac waited by the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 for her mother to catch up, then pulled her towards the barrier. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed, then ran towards it, ignoring her mother's frightened squeak. She opened one eye and then, relieved, opened the other to see a red train with many parents and students milling around, saying their goodbyes. They all looked upset, but glad, that their children were magical and off to Hogwarts. Mac looked back at her own mother, whose eyes were shifting nervously over the crowd, and realized that she was ashamed of her. Her mother's nose was in the air: she thought she was above all this, above her daughter.

Mac hurried onto the train, not so sad to be leaving her parents for the year. She wandered down the aisle, looking for an empty compartment. In the end, she sat in the corner of a compartment of second year Hufflepuffs, who didn't speak to her. Mac told herself that there would be plenty of time to make friends later. She wondered what she would do if she had no friends, but told herself that it couldn't happen. She would be fine. She sat, alone, growing more and more nervous, until the train finally halted, and she got off.

She was so anxious, she barely even noticed the boat ride across the lake, sitting with a red-headed girl who was babbling about the sorting, and how she already knew all about it from _Hogwarts: A History_. However, she began to listen when the girl started talking about the different houses. She said that Slytherin had pureblood mania (alright, Mac wouldn't end up there), Hufflepuff was for hard workers (with a snort, Mac decided that there was no way she would be put in that house), Gryffindor, where the girl wanted to be placed, was for the brave and loyal (Mac thought this was a possibility, but she wasn't overly loyal, just brave. But, then again, she'd never really had anyone to be loyal to), and Ravenclaw (Mac thought this sounded best) was for the intelligent.

They entered the great hall, and suddenly Mac wasn't the only really nervous first year. She could see in the faces of most of the others that they were just as scared as she was, except a few who just looked bored and arrogant. There were four tables of people, she assumed divided into the four houses, and they were all staring at the first years. She felt tiny. The first years were walking between the blue and the yellow tables, and she was shorter than the other students, who were sitting, staring down at the new students.

There was a tall, pointed, torn, and grungy hat on a stool in the front of the hall. Mac wondered why everyone was staring at it, until a flap opened in it and it began to sing. She stared at it in shock, and it took a moment for the words to begin to sink in. It was going on about the merits of the four different houses. The only difference between the hat and the girl from the boat's telling was the hat also said that Slytherin was cunning. Maybe it isn't that bad, Mac thought.

The hat finished, shutting the hole in its side. A professor, who had announced herself as McGonagall, called up a first year. "Aberan, Lisa!"

She was sorted into Hufflepuff as all of the students at the yellow table cheered. Mac waited and waited, hardly noticing as the redheaded girl got her wish and was placed in Gryffindor. Why was her name so far into the alphabet? After a seemingly infinite wait, McGonagall finally called, "Rush, Mackenzie!"

Mac hurried up to the stool and grabbed the hat. She sat and placed it carefully on her head, but it still slipped down until it was blinding her. She sat straighter as a shock ran through her: the hat was speaking. "Hmm, what have we here? Never seen anyone quite like you before: Muggle-born, eh? Still, you seem clever. But perhaps more cunning than intelligent. Yes, I know. Quite a commotion you'll cause, but I think its the right place for you."

It then screamed out, to Mac's shock, "Slytherin!"

She sat up, shaking a little on her feet. No one was cheering for her and that made her nervous. What was wrong? She cautiously placed the hat back on the stool and proceeded to the far right, where she had seen that the green Slytherin table was. She got the feeling that this wasn't good, and she was right. Maybe the other students wouldn't care. But when she saw their faces, she realized that that was impossible. This wasn't good at all.

Mac couldn't even hear McGonagall call the next name. She was in a daze. She wasn't a pureblood: not even close. What was she doing here? Hadn't the hat made a mistake? Maybe it was a joke; the hat had said she would cause a commotion.

She realized that everyone was still staring at her, so she sat at the end of the table, alone. The older students were all glaring at her. Some were hissing "Mudblood!" or demanding that she leave. She ignored it all, telling herself over and over that she could do this. She was so busy talking to herself that she almost didn't notice when someone sat next to her. It was a boy with long black hair and ill-fitting robes.

"Hi. I'm Severus," he introduced himself, "Severus Snape."

She was shocked for a moment, then replied, "Mackenzie Rush. But you might want to stay away from me. I think everyone hates me."

For she had just realized that not just the Slytherins, but everyone in the hall, was glaring at her. She turned back to look into the boys sparkling black eyes and saw him sizing her up and, apparently, coming to a decision. "Nah. They'll get over it."

Then he smiled. He looked much better when he smiled. She smiled back, deciding that perhaps Hogwarts wasn't as bad as she had thought. "In that case, you can call me Mac."


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N AAAHHH!! I forgot a disclaimer on the prologue! Don't sue me, please! I obviously don't own Harry Potter! And I'm using way too many exclamation points!**

**Anyway, that was my official reason for updating again so soon. My real reason is that getting reviews literally made me do a happy dance, and I wanted more. Please. I'm not being greedy at all.**

**Sorry that this chapter is a little weird- I needed to set up the story a bit. Again, it gets better, I promise.**

Mac lay on her bed, thinking about the year that had ended a week ago. Sixth year. It hadn't gone so well, but, then again, none of her years at Hogwarts really had. Still, it was better than being at home with the parents who hated her. She did have Jamie at home, though. He had been her best friend since they were seven, and he knew all about her other, magical life. But at Hogwarts, she had Sev. Most of the time, at least. She had told him to hang out with the other Slytherins. He had enough trouble with the Marauders, he didn't need trouble with them, too.

He hadn't particularly liked that suggestion, but Mac had insisted. Because of this, not many people knew how close they were. That, and the fact that they were both of a secretive nature. So unlike Jamie, but he didn't go to Hogwarts, wasn't in Slytherin, so it wasn't necessary. Thinking about Jamie, Mac decided to go visit him. His parents were much nicer than hers and wouldn't mind if she visited.

She leapt down the stairs next to her room and shouted to her parents that she was going to Jamie's. They shouted back that they didn't care, so she left. It was about a ten minute walk to his house.

She stopped outside the white house, walking onto the porch to ring the doorbell. It was answered by Mrs. Dillon, Jamie's mother, who smiled at her, saying, "Hello, dear. Jamie's right upstairs. One second. JAMIE! MACKENZIE IS HERE!"

Mac smiled as Mrs. Dillon yelled up the stairs. Seconds later, a tall, lanky, red-haired boy came running down the stairs. "Mac! Hey, what's up?"

"I don't know. I was just bored, so I thought I'd visit…" she trailed off.

He just grinned and ran back up the stairs. She rolled her eyes and followed him into his room, where they both flopped down on the blue quilt on his bed. She rolled onto her stomach while he lay on his back. After a moment of companionable silence, Jamie said, "So, what's new in the world of wizards? Any mad duels or explosions?"

She laughed. Jamie always made her feel better. "No, all the fights have been unfairly matched, so instead of a mad duel it was more like watching one person being humiliated and beaten to a bloody pulp. Although Pettigrew's cauldron did explode once in Potions. Then he started growing these massive boils where the potion hit him. It was hilarious. He is such an idiot. What about at your school?"

"Nothing much. After hearing about the magic pranks at your school, my school is rather unimpressive. But still, the kids are nice to me, I have plenty of friends- they just aren't you."

"Well, as you know, I don't have plenty of friends. Just you and Sev. But there isn't anyone else that I would really want to be friends with."

"Am I ever going to get to meet this Sev? You talk about him a lot."

"Maybe someday," she replied playfully, poking him in the side with a long finger.

They chatted for a while longer, about school and people they knew, before Mac decided it was time to leave. She heaved herself up off his soft and comfy bed and said goodbye. When she walked down the stairs to leave, he called after, "Hey, Mac! Want to hang out tomorrow?"

"Sorry," she looked back at him, "Sev's coming over tomorrow."

________________________________________________________________________

The next day when Mac heard the doorbell ring, she jumped off her bed and ran out of her room in a flurry of parchment and broken quills. Yelling to her parents, "I'll get it!" She hurried to the front door and pulled it open. "Sev! You're here!"

With that she pounced on him and pulled him into a hug. He patted her arm awkwardly, not being used to hugs, and said, "Okay, you can stop strangling me now, I'm happy to see you, too."

She released him with an aloof look on her face, not revealing her slight embarrassment at having shown her emotions so blatantly. "Fine, then. Be that way."

But she could only keep it up for a minute before she started to laugh. He smiled, too, not admitting how happy he was to see his only friend again. They had only been apart for a week and a half, but after spending the entire school year together, this seemed like a very long time. Mac pulled him into her house and demanded, "Let's go to Diagon Alley."

"Fine. I'm not sure why you want to, we won't get our school letters for a few weeks," he replied, rolling his eyes. She grinned and pulled him up the stairs to her room, shouting to her parents that she and Sev were going now. Sev stared around her room, wondering how she could possibly be such a slob. He could barely see the floor beneath the layer of random junk. Nothing was in shelves; rather, it was in random stacks all over the room. Sev spent most of his year living in a room with four other teenage guys, and their room wasn't this messy.

"It's an organized mess," Mac commented, seeing his expression. She got her wand off her nightstand, pulled a moneybag out from under a pile of books on her desk, and retrieved a box from her open trunk, which she tossed to Sev. "Here's your birthday present."

"You mean from my birthday last February?" he snickered.

"So I'm a procrastinator," she replied defensively. "Anyway, it was for your seventeenth, I had to find something good. Can I have the hostage now?"

He smirked at her again. "I was just making sure I got mine eventually."

He carefully extracted a box, wrapped in gold paper, from the pocket of his pants and passed it to Mac. Then they both eagerly opened their boxes. Sev pulled the top off his box to reveal a heavy silver and gold watch with a multitude of knobs and dials. Watches were a customary coming of age gift from a wizard's parents, but Mac knew that his parents hadn't given him anything. He slid it onto his wrist and fastened the clasp. It fit perfectly.

Mac's present, unreceived from her birthday in April, was a necklace. She smiled. Sev had seen her admiring it in Hogsmeade once. It was a silver snake with green eyes, about as thick as her thumb. She wrapped it around her neck, where it hissed and shook its tail.

Both of the teenagers were resolutely avoiding the other's gaze. They were Slytherins, after all, not some bloody pansy Hufflepuffs who would cry over a present. Even if they were both very nice, heartfelt presents. Or perhaps because of it. After all, presents like that said it all, so discussion, luckily for them, was not necessary.

"Okay. Let's go," said Sev, his voice a bit harsher than usual, covering his emotions.

"Apparate to the Leaky Cauldron?" questioned Mac, and Sev nodded. After a twirl and a flick of their wands, and a brief sucking sensation, both stumbled to a halt in the coatroom of the Leaky Cauldron.

"So, where do you want to go?" asked Sev.

"Now, don't get mad, but I actually wanted to go to Muggle London, Mac said. Seeing his expression, she finished quickly, "I have my mother's credit card so we can get whatever we want and I was thinking…"

He cut her off, after all, the rest of the sentence was useless if her didn't know: "What's a credit card?"

Mac grinned demonically. "It's used like money, but they charge whoever owns the card later for however much was spent."

Now Sev was grinning, too. "So you basically stole an infinite amount of your mother's money?"

She bit her lip, a move that was counteracted by the twinkle in her eyes, and nodded. Sev lightly punched her arm. "Finally acting like a true Slytherin, eh, Mac? Let's go!"

They went into clothes stores and bought whole new wardrobes. Mac knew more then Sev about Muggle clothes, and they picked out mostly black outfits. Sev had been reluctant at first, until he realized how nice it felt to have clothes that fit. They got new shoes, and Mac dragged Sev into a hair salon and they both got haircuts. Sev saw a tattoo parlor, but Mac convinced him not to get a Muggle tattoo. He had wanted a sword with a snake twined around it. In return, he decided that they should each get a piercing. She complained that it would hurt, but he teased her until she gave in.

To end the day, they went to dinner at a fancy Muggle restaurant, again, courtesy of Mac's mother's credit card. Then they apparated back to Mac's room with all of their bags. Mac dropped her bags in a pile in the corner and laughed. "I can't believe that you just went on a shopping spree with me. It's just so… girly!"

Sev tackled her back onto her bed. "It is not! Anyways, I don't want to just look different. I want this year to be different. I'm sick of getting beaten up and always losing fights."

Mac stopped laughing as Sev rolled off her and, lying next to her, stared up at the ceiling. She could see how much this meant to him and how hard it was for him to say. Neither of them was very good at revealing weaknesses, especially when everyone they knew was so ready to take advantage. Until she answered, she knew, he would avoid looking into her eyes, in case she was planning on using this information. "I'll do whatever you want."

He smiled. "So, I was thinking that this summer we could practice dueling…"


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N Alright, here is where the story actually gets started...**

However desperate Mac was to be getting back to Hogwarts, she was still sad to be leaving Jamie. Her parents, who didn't really like her anyways, had declined to come to the train station with her. In fact, they hadn't really spoken to her after the credit card fiasco, except for to yell at her. Jamie, who had somehow found out about this, decided that he would drive Mac to the train station on September 1st. She had argued, but he had insisted.

When they reached the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, Mac had insisted that he go no further. It wasn't safe for him to be seen with her on the platform, not when she had so many enemies and he had no way to defend himself. He had tried to change her decision, but she wouldn't budge. So after a hug goodbye and a promise to owl often, Mac had proceeded through to the platform by herself.

She dragged her heavy trunk up onto the train, blocking out the tearful goodbyes surrounding her. She had grown to be highly skilled in blocking things out over the years, so she was able to completely ignore them and not ask herself why no one was there for her.

Once on the train, Mac began to search for an empty compartment. Since it was still relatively early, she didn't have much difficulty finding one. The third window she looked through revealed unused seats, so she pushed the door open and forced her trunk onto the luggage rack.

Mac settled into the plush red seat of the empty compartment she had found. It felt wonderful to finally be going back to Hogwarts. She felt at home there as she never had with her parents, because she fit in. Maybe not with the Slytherins, or even the students in general, but the school and the sense of magic. She didn't feel like a freak like she did at home.

She started thinking about which NEWT classes she was taking this year. She pulled out her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook, admiring the way its shiny, new cover gleamed in the sun. It was her favorite class, and her best. She was curious to see how much of the material she already knew from her time with Sev over the summer. Thinking of Sev, she wondered why he hadn't found her yet.

She was broken out of her thoughts when the glass door slid open. Finally, she grinned, Sev was here. The smile slid off her face when she realized that it wasn't Sev, to be replaced by her usual look of cold indifference, a look that often convinced people to leave her alone.

The four boys in the doorway, however, were not cowed. In fact, they didn't even seem to notice her less than welcoming demeanor. They did notice her outward appearance, though. She had shoulder length, curly, dark brown hair with straight, long bangs that swept off to the side, occasionally falling over her left eye. This accented the small silver hoop in her right eyebrow. She was slender and average height and was wearing jeans and an off-the-shoulder black silk shirt, showing her pale skin. They were all trying to remember if they had seen her before, but none of them could recall.

The boy in the front pushed his hand back through his hair, making the black strands even more disorderly then they had been, and asked, "Do you mind if we sit here?"

They all ignored her response and began to sit down. The sandy haired boy, however, looked at her quizzically and questioned, "Did you say something?"

"Actually, yes, I did," Mac replied, rolling her eyes. "I said 'No.'"

They all stared at her in shock, as if they'd never before been refused something, which, she guessed, they hadn't. None of them moved, though, except the muscular one with the smooth, black hair and aristocratic features, who moved closer to Mac and said, "Would you still say that if I asked you to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Yes," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Wait," he said, "yes, you would go with me?"

"No, Black, yes, I would still say that and no, I wouldn't go with you."

Black looked stunned. Mac guessed that being refused twice in five minutes wasn't good for his enormous ego. "Why not?"

"You're not my type," replied Mac, trying to keep from laughing because that would ruin her fun.

"I'm everybody's type," said Black with what he obviously thought was a sexy smirk. By this point, the other three boys were watching with interest, heads tilted slightly as if this would help them to better catch every word. After all, it wasn't every day that their friend Sirius Black, THE Sirius Black, was turned down.

"No, I'm not into bigheaded jerks who think they're better than everyone else, so they can do whatever they want. I don't like guys with egos so huge, they engulf their intelligence, which there wasn't much of to begin with, and who think that it's a good thing to date twenty different girls every year.

"Plus," she added thoughtfully, "I'm not big on the idea of dating a guy who obviously spends at least twice as long as I do in front of the mirror every morning, fixing his hair."

Black's hand flew to his head, but he stopped before he touched it. All the boys were staring at her like she had turned green or grown an extra head. "It was seventeen, not twenty," he muttered, and then continued, louder, "Girls don't treat me like that."

"Girls from your house don't," Mac corrected.

"Or Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw," he retorted. He's almost got it, thought Mac. She nodded, prompting him forward. He stared at her, looking like he was deep in thought.

"Wait, you can't be," he started, then stopped again. Let his slow mind catch up, she thought, he'll have it in a second.

"You're a Slytherin?" he exclaimed, with a mixture of shock and revulsion in his voice. Merlin, what about her was more revolting then his pigheaded arrogance? This time, she spoke her thoughts out loud. "You finally got it. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Normally, this would have provoked him, but he looked slightly shellshocked. The slightly shorter, sandy haired boy said, "But you're wearing Muggle clothes."

"Good job, Lupin," Mac said in a falsely sweet voice, "You get an O in useless observations."

"Get out of our compartment!" demanded the boy with messy hair, his face turning red and his dark eyes flashing behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

"Potter," she sighed, sounding like she was explaining something to a five year old, "I was here first. This is _my_ compartment."

"Not anymore, it's not."

"Good to see you're still with us, Black," she replied sarcastically.

"Out," ordered Black, pulling out his wand. At this, everyone suddenly had their wands in their hands.

Then, suddenly, Black's wand flew out of his hand. Now Mac had two wands. Black seethed, "What the bloody hell?"

"Nonverbal spells, Black," smirked Mac. Potter looked like he was about to hex her, so she got ready. But it never came. All of them were staring behind her. She cautiously turned to see the compartment door open and another boy leaning against the doorframe.

He was wearing a black leather jacket, a t-shirt, and jeans. He was tall and slender, yet muscular enough to fill out his clothes nicely. His jet-black hair was short and slightly spiky, and he had a small silver stud piercing the skin just below his lower lip. Mac grinned. "Hi, Sev. You're running a little late."

"A little. You need any help?" Sev asked, jerking his head towards the boys in the compartment.

"Nah, I was finished with them, anyway. Just amusing myself until you got here," Mac said, tucking her wand away. She tossed Black's wand back to him, but he was still staring. It bounced harmlessly off of his shoulder and rolled to a stop on the floor. She had never seen anyone's eyes bulge out like that. And people actually thought he was attractive. "You can keep the compartment."

Mac flicked her wand at her trunk, shrinking it, then grabbed it. She and Sev exited the compartment, not bothering to shut the door. As they walked away, the babble of voices rose behind them. "That was Snivellus… who the hell was she… how'd he get to look like that… she took my wand… he had his lip pierced… why didn't they hex us… do we know her, she knew all our names… that was SNIVELLUS!"

Mac and Sev looked at each other for a second, and then burst out laughing. They continued to walk down the corridor, looking for another empty compartment. The train was starting, so most of them were already full of giggling girls, strutting boys, and nervous first years, all chatting animatedly about the coming year without a care in the world. Mac found them all very annoying, perhaps because she had never been given the opportunity to be like that.

And then there were the Slytherins, who always looked like they were plotting, who sneered when anyone they disapproved of walked by. And that was a lot of people. They saw Mac and Sev walk by, and magically slid the door open. Apparently they weren't important enough to warrant someone getting up to open the door. Bellatrix Black, a darkly beautiful girl with heavy lidded eyes and a tangle of black hair, said, "Come sit with us, Severus. No need to hang around that filthy little mudblood."

Sev almost gave his customary affirmative answer, then remembered that this year was supposed to be different. But he still couldn't insult them, as Mac had told him, he already had enough trouble from the Marauders. "No thanks, I'll just keep looking for an empty compartment."

Black looked angry, but she didn't reveal it, except through her eyes. The rest of the students in the compartment gave Sev looks that told him that they obviously thought he had made the wrong decision. Then the door slid shut, and they were hidden from view. Sev shook the incident off, choosing not to think about it. "Come on Mac, I'm sure there's still somewhere left to sit."

Finally, near the back of the train, they found a compartment where they could stay. A few students, obviously first years, were in the compartment, and looked up when they heard the door slide open. Mac looked in and gave her most threatening glare, bared teeth and drawn eyebrows included. She loved that her new eyebrow ring emphasized her threatening-face eyebrows. The girl in front gave a squeak and, spinning around, ran out the door, grabbing a friend's arm and dragging her along. The rest of them took only seconds to vacate the compartment.

"Cool, I didn't even have to say anything," commented Mac. "I guess this makeover was actually in some way practical. I now have scary clothes and a punk haircut and a weird piercing to scare the little kids. So do you. We can be scary together! This year, it won't be us getting scared!"

Sev grinned and piled the existing trunks outside the door, then lay down along the right hand wall on the seats, taking up the entire bench. Mac sat down, slouched with her legs stretched out in front of her, on the other side. "So, are you glad to be going back?"

Sev considered for a moment. "Hogwarts is my home, and will always be my favorite place, so, yah, I guess I am. But still, this year seems like it's going to be different, which is good, which is what I wanted, but also more, I don't know…"

"Dangerous?" finished Mac, cutting off his rambling.

"Yah, with this Lord Voldemort and… I don't know if I told you this, but last year I heard some of the other Slytherins talking of joining the Death Eaters."

"Actually I didn't know. But since you wouldn't, I don't really care. It's not like the rest of them could be any worse than they already are."

Sev wanted to tell her to be careful, but he couldn't. It wasn't the sort of thing he was capable of saying. So, instead, he changed the subject and replied, "So, how was your mother after you stole her credit thingy? I avoid her when I go to your house."

"Actually, she was better than usual. She was so upset about the credit CARD that she didn't talk to me. So I just had to deal with my dad calling me a freak. They still seem to think there is some chance of me going to finishing school, so they were really upset about the eyebrow ring, too. Which, I don't think I need to tell you, I thought was funny."

"Of course." This seemingly agreeing response was accompanied by an eye-roll.

They chatted for the rest of the ride, happy when the train came to a stop because that meant that they could head up to the school for the delicious Welcome Back feast. It was good to be home.

**A/N Don't worry, the Marauders aren't going to be the villains of the fic. There is going to be a mix of important characters.**

**I haven't been getting many reviews, which makes me sad. So I'm resorting to blackmail. I'm not updating again for two weeks, but I'll take a day off of that for every review I get (minimum two days until I update). And they don't have to be good, I like compliments, advice, suggestions, opinions, even people telling me they don't like it. Just let me know that someone is actually reading this! **


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N Okay, so I lied. I know I said that I wouldn't update again yet, but I felt guilty for depriving the people who actually bothered to review (many thanks, guys!) Anyway, I shouldn't have to resort to blackmail to get you to review. It takes like five seconds! Come on!**

**Also, I keep forgetting to write disclaimers. Just assume the one from a few chapters back is in effect for the remainder of the story. Trust me, if I were to suddenly acquire the rights to Harry Potter, I would let you know.**

**Anyway, here's the next chapter. It's a little weird, but whatever.**

James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin were in their dorm in the Gryffindor Tower. It was also Peter Pettigrew's dorm, but he wasn't there: he was speaking to Professor McGonagall, head of the Gryffindor House, about which NEWT courses he was taking. He was considering dropping divination, which everyone knew was useless anyways. They doubted that he would have much trouble; Professor McGonagall hated divination.

Despite that it was their first night back in the castle, they were bored and trying to come up with something to do. So far, they had exhausted the options of eating, playing exploding snap, and planning pranks (but only because they didn't like to plan too far ahead).

"If only my sweet Lily flower would talk to me," moaned James. Despite his supposedly eternal love for Lily Evans, she couldn't stand him. It didn't help that he had been made Head Boy this year, while she was Head Girl, forcing her to spend even more time around him.

"If you were more polite…" started Remus, even though he knew it was futile. He had tried to talk some sense into James numerous times, but, when it came to Lily, James wouldn't listen to reason. One would think that years of failure would have convinced him to try a new tactic, but no, not James.

"Would you shut up about Lily?" ordered Sirius. He had heard this conversation at least once a week since third year, and was entirely sick of it. "I'm bored. Give me the map, I'm going to see if anyone we know is wandering the halls."

James handed him a piece of parchment. "Maybe Lily…"

"No. No Lily. Besides, she's not a rule breaker." Sirius unfolded the parchment and tapped it with his wand and said, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

Lines appeared on the page, forming a map, which Sirius began to scan. His eyes widened as he said, his tone surprised, "Snivellus is in the Astronomy Tower."

"So?" interrupted James, wanting to return to his favorite topic, Lily.

"With a _girl_," finished Sirius.

"What? No way! Let me see," demanded James, thoughts of Lily, although not forgotten, pushed to the side for a moment. He shoved Sirius over to get a look. Sirius pointed, and James stared at the two dots next to each other on the map, labeled "Severus Snape" and "Mackenzie Rush."

"We have to go see! This calls for the Invisibility Cloak," said James, opening his trunk and dumping armfuls of clothes and stacks of books onto the floor, as well as, creepily enough, a few photos of Lily. Finally, with a flourish, he yanked out a long, silvery cloak. "You coming, Moony?'

Remus shook his head, not even bothering to look up from his book. "Unlike you, I don't enjoy spying on other people's private moments."

"We aren't going to spy," smirked Sirius. "We're going to interrupt."

Remus rolled his eyes. Sirius stuck out his tongue. "Fine then, you spoilsport."

James shook the cloak out in the air, unfolding it. When it drifted back down over him and Sirius, they disappeared. "Ow, don't step on my foot!"

"Sorry, mate."

A hand appeared out of nowhere and snatched the map off of the bed. Then Remus heard the sound of retreating footsteps. He sighed. When would they learn to leave well enough alone? But it wasn't his problem, so he went back to his book.

When James and Sirius finally reached the Astronomy tower, they saw the backs of two dark haired heads, and two sets of legs dangling over the edge of the tower. They elbowed each other, snickering. Sirius asked, "So, what's the interruption plan?"

But James wasn't paying attention. "I think they're talking about us."

"…the look on their faces when they saw you. Priceless! See, I told you it was worth the exercise," she said.

"I still hate you for making me run," he grumbled, poking her in the side.

"Oh, don't be such an old man, now you have enviable muscles to make all the girls drool," she laughed as she poked him back. He just started at her like she had gone crazy. "Let's play a game."

He rolled his eyes, ready for anything that would distract the conversation from his muscles. "Fine. What game?"

By this point, Sirius was poking James in the side repeatedly. "She's the girl from the train."

"I can see that, Padfoot. Shh!"

Mac was still considering, tapping her pointer finger against her chin, her eyes thoughtful. "How about… Which Marauder?"

"That's a game?" snickered Sirius. "See, I told you everyone is obsessed with us."

"Fine, if you insist," answered Sev.

"Well, I do."

"Yes, I know that's why I said that. No, don't interrupt again. Hey, I'm talking!" He poked her arm, and when she kept trying to talk, he covered her mouth with his hand. "My question first. Which Marauder do you hate the most?"

His face turned disgusted as he pulled his hand away from her mouth. "You licked me!"

"Yah, well, I wanted to say something and you were covering my mouth. I hate… Lupin the most."

"Lupin?" He sounded confused. "Why? What did he do to you? And you picked him once for who you would be locked in a room with, so that doesn't really make sense."  
James and Sirius looked at each other, wondering the same thing. No one hated Remus, he was just so likeable. He was friendly, shy, helpful, studious: everything that people wanted other people to be. And, after all they had done to someone who was apparently her friend, why not one of them? Good thing Remus hadn't come. Who knows how he would have reacted to hearing that someone hated him. Sometimes they thought he dedicated his time, when he wasn't studying, to making sure that everyone liked him.

"Well, I picked him for that because he wouldn't attack me, but he also wouldn't faint like Pettigrew would. You know I can't stand seeing people humiliated. I hate him the most because, unlike the others, he has the potential to be a good person, but he isn't. He let's his stupid friends do whatever they want, and I can see in his eyes that he knows that its wrong, but he's too cowardly to do anything about. It surprises me that he's in Gryffindor: he isn't brave.

"I'm not going to bother asking back: you hate Potter the most."

"What gave me away?" He was grinning. "Your turn."

"Which Marauder do you… pity the most?"

"Why would they pity any of us?" Sirius asked James, confused. After all, they had everything that all students wanted. The Slytherins acted like they didn't care about popularity, but they had to. Didn't they? James just told him to shut up.

"I don't know. They're all kind of pathetic. Potter, I guess. He's totally in love with Lily, and she keeps turning him down. Funny though it is for me, I'd feel really bad for him if I didn't know him. But I'd still be pretty angry if she finally gave in. All of us who hate the Marauders have our hopes pinned on her. You?"

"They don't need to pity me," snapped James, his eyes flashing. "She loves me, she just hasn't realized it yet."

"Sure, mate, whatever you say," said Sirius, trying to quiet him down, and also wondering who else was included in "all of us who hate the Marauders."

"Definitely Pettigrew," Mac answered, "He cares so much about what they think, and sometimes they're so mean to him. Eventually it's going to be too much for him. But I don't feel that bad for him since he doesn't care who he hurts in his quest to be one of them."

Sev nodded his acceptance of her reasoning. "Which Marauder would you snog then?"

"Ew, Sev, that's disgusting!" Her nose was crinkled up and her eyes were squinty as she twisted up her face for emphasis.

"We aren't that bad," whispered Sirius huffily. "Most girls would do anything to snog one of us. They wouldn't even care which one. Well, except Peter."

"Okay, I need background information. Would anyone know? Would I have to see them again? Would they be allowed to talk? Is their personality taken into consideration?"

"How about no, no, no, and no."

"In that case… Black. He's the best looking, if you don't know them. Plus, I could mess up his stupid hair."

Sev's nose was crinkled, mirroring Mac's expression to his question. "I really don't want to think about it."

"Hey, you asked! So now I'll as an awkward question… which would you chose for me to date?"

"Lupin, he's the least of a jerk. But I wouldn't want you dating any of them. Because they're all arrogant jerks who would think that they owned you. You deserve a nice guy. Plus, that would mean I would have to be around them. You know that. Why, which would you date?"

"Well, first of all, of course I know that, and I wouldn't. And don't be so selfish." Then, knowing what he was thinking, she added, "Yes, I know you're a Slytherin. Second, if I deserve a nice guy, I won't be able to date until I'm out of school. All the people here are jerks, at least when they're around me. Plus, niceness is overrated. And kind of boring. Third, I would date… would it have to be a real relationship?"

"What does that even mean, Mac?" Sev cocked one eyebrow.

"Well, if I didn't have to snog him, I'd date Pettigrew. I could turn him into my own personal slave."

Sev snorted. Unknown to him and Mac, so did James and Sirius. "Nope, doesn't work like that."

For some reason Sirius felt himself waiting for an answer, and felt slightly disappointed when she answered, "Probably Lupin, because he isn't bad looking, in love with another girl, or a player."

Sirius grinned ruefully. He knew that last thing was about him. He couldn't help it if he was the most sought after guy in school. What was he supposed to do with all the girls who jumped him in broom closets? Next to him, James was also smiling, but his grin was proud.

"In fact, if I didn't hate him and he wasn't quite so goody-goody, I'd probably like him." To Sev's disgusted face, she said, "Hey, he's hot.

"Actually, though, at this point you're hotter," she commented, then continued, when she saw his face, "Just stating a fact, not being awkward or anything. So, are you going to get a girlfriend this year? I mean, you do know that you're going to have a fan club soon, too? All the girls were staring at you at the banquet."

"No, I'm not. I don't want one, anyway. A fan club, I mean. I'm not like stupid, attention-seeking Potter and Black."

"She thinks he can get a fan club? Who do they think they are?" demanded Sirius.

"Bloody Slytherins, that's who," replied James, and they went back to their spying.

"Exactly. The reason that so many girls like Black, other than his looks, is that he is obviously troubled. They want to redeem him because he's a troublemaker. But you seem even darker. Plus, you're more secretive and don't have a reputation for lying to girls to get them to sleep with you. It's appealing, the challenge, you know." She glanced up at Sev, who looked confused. "Sorry, I'm not explaining this well. But, just wait, you'll see what I mean."

"Sure, whatever you say, Mac," he replied, obviously not believing her. "Lets head back to our dorms."

They got up and started walking towards the stairs. Sirius and James, who had been paralyzed by shock at what she was saying, no one could be more sought after than SIRIUS, quickly stumbled out of their way a bit louder than they meant to. They both held their breath, hoping that the two Slytherins hadn't heard them. They let out their breath in a sigh of relief when the two disappeared down the stairs, and then James said, "We should get going, too, mate."


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N It seems that no one else wants to review last chapter (sigh), so here is the next one. Thanks to those kind enough to take a few seconds to tell me to continue. Or even to tell me that they hate it (although no one did)- I still like to know that people are actually reading...**

**Sorry, I'm whining a lot. I'll shut up now... on to the story!!!**

During the last few weeks, Mac's observations had proven correct. Severus kept getting swarmed by girls and, with the first Hogsmeade weekend approaching, numerous offers of dates. A few girls even offered "no strings attached" meetings in broom closets, all of which Sev refused. Some of the girls, to Mac's delight, she recognized from Black's fan club. They were switching over, as she had predicted, and it made her want to giggle with glee, but she thought that would sound too much like on of them.

Her radical change had been much less noticed, since no one had actually looked at her in the first place. She didn't really care though, and was happy for Sev. Not that he wanted the girls, or the newfound attention, but no one had picked on him this year, except the Marauders. The girls weren't right for him, anyways: much too blonde and ditzy.

Mac had managed to mostly avoid notice, although some of his new fangirls were giving Mac death stares when they saw her eating lunch with Sev. They didn't know it, but she thought it was quite amusing, and persisted in pointing out their stares to Sev, who, as a secretive person, found the attention annoying.

"So, Sev," she began, piling chicken onto her plate, "What do you think of me trying out for the quidditch team?"

"Really? Do you think they'd let you on? I mean, Malfoy is the captain, and he hates you," replied Sev. "What position would you want?"

"Beater. And if I'm good enough, they'll let me on, because they want to beat Gryffindor so badly. They'll just ignore me and not admit to anyone that I'm on the team," she answered as she began to eat.

"You're probably right," conceded Sev as he stole a roll off her plate.

She tried to smack his hand but was too late. He grinned. "There weren't any left."

She rolled her eyes and kept eating, digging her fork into a mound of mashed potatoes. "The tryouts are tonight, so I can't hang out."

"That's fine. Just tell me afterwards how they go. You know where I'll be." She nodded. Sev always stayed in the corner of the common room. The library, in fact, anywhere outside of the Slytherin dorms, was unsafe for him when the Marauders had chosen him as their main target. "We should probably get going. I don't want to be late on the first day."

Mac nodded again. They headed to their first class of the day, potions, which they had with the Gryffindors. She knew how much he liked potions, although she had never really understood the fascination, so she allowed him to lead them to class quickly.

Mac was relieved when Professor Slughorn, the large, walrus-like man who taught the class, said that they could choose their own partners for the year. Obviously, Sev and Mac choose to be partners, for which Mac was grateful: Sev was a potions genius, while she was merely adequate. And this year, for once, they could admit to friendship and work together in more than one class.

However, she was not so grateful for the fact that Black and Potter had chosen to set up their cauldron directly behind hers. Figures that they would have to try and ruin the first class of their seventh year. And the other students said seventh year was supposed to be _fun_, Mac rolled her eyes. Sev went to go get supplies as Black and Potter started whispering about something. Mac didn't like having her back to them. It went against her suspicious nature. She wanted to look back, but resisted the urge. Knowing those two, she would never hear the end of how she was one of their fangirls.

So when Sev returned, she acted normal, as they began mixing the complicated sleeping draft. However, Mac was not surprised when she heard, "Hey, Snivellus, is that why you got a makeover? For your girlfriend? 'Cause if that's the case, we all want to thank her."

Sev stiffened slightly but didn't turn. He didn't want to get in trouble in potions, it was his favorite class, so he simply continued stirring the clear blue liquid, pausing only to add a small piece of unicorn hair. Mac, on the other hand, turned around with a deceptively friendly smile, wand in hand. "If you don't shut up, I'll curse your tongue out of your head. Then everyone would have a real reason to thank me."

Sirius, who had made the original comment, opened his mouth to retort, suddenly found himself unable to speak. Mac smiled, knowing she had won. She already knew that he couldn't do nonverbal spells, so there was no way for him to get revenge, at least not until after he visited the hospital wing. She pointed to the ground. "If you're looking for your tongue, its right over there. And I would suggest closing your mouth. Open mouths are unattractive, even if they're empty. Literally."

Sirius stared at her in shock, then leaned over to pick up the pink, slimy strip that was, apparently, his tongue. He picked it up, nudging James. After a moment of frantic gesturing, alternating between the thing in his hand and his mouth, James finally understood the problem. He asked Slughorn to be excused and the two headed to the hospital.

When the class ended, Mac was unsurprised to be approached by Potter, Lupin, and Pettigrew, although he was hanging back somewhat. Potter, always the ringleader, demanded, "What did you do to him? Now, Rush."

"So you suddenly know my name?" she asked, her mouth quirking up at one side. "I'm flattered."

"Just tell us now, or… or I'll hex you!" This wasn't the sort of thing Potter usually said to a girl, especially while actually drawing his wand. It made Mac feel special. That she could get so under their skin.

"Sure you will. Feel free to try," Mac commented happily. She could see Potter getting madder by the second, and Lupin trying to calm him down, but she couldn't resist. She had been dying to try out her new defense skills on someone.

But at this instant, Sev entered the picture. Potter needed to take out his anger on someone, and, while he had hesitated to do so on a girl, he had no problem cursing "Snivellus."

So he went ahead and yelled out a curse, meant to cause the unlucky person being cursed's hair fall out. Sev had been facing Mac and utterly defenseless: he hadn't noticed Potter was there. So Mac cast a shield charm so strong Potter flew back and bounced off the wall.

She stared for a second, rather proud, until Potter moaned from his position on the floor. Lupin quickly helped him up and, with a backwards glance at Mac, helped Potter stumble away. Too bad that Lupin wasn't up for a fight. He always just stood there. Why couldn't he make a decision? She decided to be helpful and called after his back, "I used a severing charm on Black's tongue, if you still want to know!"

Their plan had worked: they had beaten the Marauders in their first fight of the year. The train hadn't really counted as a fight: no one had been cursed. Sev, however, was disappointed that he hadn't participated, but Mac assured him it would happen again. After all, the Marauders, everyone knew, did not learn from experience.

The rest of her classes were not very eventful after that.

That night Mac headed down to the quidditch pitch alone. When she got there, it was quarter to eight. Tryouts didn't begin until eight, so she flew laps until the other players arrived. Malfoy yelled for all the players to gather on the field. When he saw Mac, his face twisted into a sneer. Mac thought that was a shame, as he could have been relatively handsome otherwise, with his pale blonde hair and aristocratic features, and well toned body from years of quidditch. She wasn't too disappointed though; he was a jerk, and blondes weren't really her type anyways. She returned her attention to him as he said, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the little mudblood. Here to humiliate yourself?"

She felt uncomfortable with his stare; there was something behind those cold blue eyes other than hatred. Whatever it was, she knew it wasn't mutual, but he probably didn't care. "Actually Malfoy, I was here to tryout. But if you're afraid of being shown up by a mudblood…"

She gestured, indicating that she could leave. "Fine, stay. At least you'll be good entertainment for the rest of us."

With that, he gave the order for all of the want-to-be team members to take a lap around the field. Mac was the second one back, after a small, blonde fifth year trying out for seeker. Malfoy stared at her, his look a combination of shock and anger. Next, he started tryouts for different positions. They needed a seeker, a beater, and a chaser. They already had one beater, a keeper, and two chasers. There were three others trying out with Mac for the beater position, all boys. Mac thought she was better than them, but was waiting for the beater tryouts to decide for sure.

The chasers were the first to try out, with a series of complex drills and then an opportunity to attempt to score against Slytherin's keeper of two years, Anson Bowne. Most failed miserably, and Malfoy was obviously impressed with the ones that scored on even one of their three attempts. A few even scored twice, and Mac thought that one of these would make the team.

After the chaser tryouts, Malfoy ordered the beaters into the air. Mac flew up, relatively confident in her skills, but also desperately hoping that she didn't make a mistake because she knew that the Slytherins would never let her forget it. But then she forgot her worries as the first Bludger flew towards her. She drew back her bat and swung with all her strength. Perfect timing, she grinned: the bludger flew all the way to the other end of the field.

Malfoy yelled to aim for the hoops, and Mac flew in front of a solidly built fifth year, stealing the bludger he had been about to hit and sending it flying through the middle hoop. In revenge, he hit the next bludger he saw at her, which she skillfully dodged, internally laughing that he would waste a chance like that. When it doubled back at her, she slammed it as hard as she could. Again, the bludger went through the hoop. It felt so good, so right, hammering the bludgers. Mac could just forget the world and all her problems, of which there were quite a few.

When, a few minutes later, Malfoy called to switch to seeker tryouts, Mac landed and hopped off her broom with ease. She was almost positive she was on the team, despite Malfoy's dislike of "people like her." She watched the seekers with interest, wondering which would make it. Only two appeared to be that good, a curly haired fourth year girl and Regulus Black, a sixth year and ex-brother of Sirius Black. She guessed he would make it, as Malfoy, on top of being prejudiced against non-purebloods, was completely sexist.

Malfoy dismissed the players soon after. As Mac picked up her broom and turned to leave, he grabbed her arm. "I just want you to know, if you make the team, you are not allowed to associate with us outside of practice. You will not talk about the team. You will not be mentioned in anything involving the team. Clear?"

She nodded, and he said, "Results will be posted in the common room the day after tomorrow."

She nodded again and walked away. If she hadn't been in Slytherin, she would have been whistling, maybe even dancing around in complete and utter joy (although her dancing was rather hideous and not meant for the light of day). That little speech meant that she had made the team.

Therefore, the two days later, she wasn't surprised to see the notice pinned to the Slytherin common room's notice board:

Chasers- Lucius Malfoy

Dmitry Lestrange

Micah Kraler

Beaters- Damian Zariken

Mackenzie Rush

Keeper- Anson Bowne

Seeker- Regulus Black

New players underlined


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N So, here's the next chapter. ****There is a bit of graphic violence in here. Nothing really bad.**

**See? See how I warned you? You know, like talking to you? Return the favor and review!**

Mac had already done her homework, because for some reason she hadn't been assigned much, and didn't have quidditch practice that night. So she had decided to head down to dinner early, and invited Sev to go with her. "Sorry, I've got to finish this transfiguration essay. I'll meet you down at dinner, okay?"

She nodded, not particularly caring. She had spent six years eating by herself, so she didn't mind spending some time on her own. Knowing that someone cared enough to be coming to meet her made her incredibly happy. In fact, she was just feeling happy in general, a rare occurrence for her.

Mac strolled down the hall to dinner alone, smiling. She very rarely smiled for no reason, but she was in a good mood. This year was going well, she was on the quidditch team, she was getting good marks, and people weren't bothering her as much as they used to, in previous school years. Plus, she and Sev were actually acting like friends in public, which was strange but nice.

Her good mood, however, disappeared when she rounded the corner, heading for the Great Hall. There was a group of Slytherins and a small boy, probably a first year. He was, judging by the blue tie around his neck, a Ravenclaw, and they had, apparently, surrounded him. He was trapped against the wall.

Mac quickly took stock of the situation. There were four Slytherins: Lestrange, Bellatrix Black, Crabbe, and Avery. She probably couldn't take all four of them on her own, but she could probably hold them off while the kid ran. After all, she couldn't let them beat a first year to a bloody pulp. At the moment, they were just scaring him and calling him mudblood, but they would escalate from there, especially if he tried to defend himself. They always did. Mac knew from experience. And she couldn't let them do that to someone else, especially an eleven year old. She would never forgive herself.

So, without really thinking of a game plan, she stepped out into the hallway. "What's going on here?"

They looked up, four matching pairs of eyes dark with loathing, but at the same time twinkling perversely, showing their joy in this torture. The Ravenclaw just looked scared, and his eyes were down. He was silent, obviously hoping not to provoke his tormentors any more. "Come to join in our fun, little mudblood?"

"Actually, no, not really my idea of fun," she replied easily, disguising her nervousness. She hadn't been really badly hexed yet this year, and she would have preferred to keep it that way, but it was beginning to appear unavoidable. She had her hand in her pocket, firmly grasping her wand, ready to pull it out at any second.

This turned out to be a good thing, too, because Avery chose this moment to call out "Petrificus Totalus!" She blocked it easily.

"Is that all you've got?" she asked mockingly. In a completely different voice, nudging the small boy who was cowering behind her, she said, "What are you waiting for? Run!"

The boy needed no further prompting, and ran off down the hall. When Crabbe made to go after him, Mac threw him back against the wall with a spell, reducto. Black spat out, "You're a pathetic disgrace to our house, filthy mudblood. You'll pay for ruining that."

Mac knew that, she had known since the instant she interfered. But she was going to put up a fight going down. She swiftly pulled out her wand, yelling, "Reducto!"

Lestrange dodged it, shouting, "Engorgio!"

She blocked it. This was going better than she had expected it would, maybe she wouldn't get hurt this time…

"Sectumsempra!" Mac spun towards Black, who had just yelled out a curse, but she wasn't quick enough to block it. It hit her, full in the front, and she flew back through the air as it cut her stomach and chest to ribbons. Her clothing was slashed into bits and she could see her flesh for an instant before it was covered by blood. She slammed into the floor, but the pain in her back as she hit was nothing compared to the cuts, which had gone from numb to excruciatingly painful in seconds. The floor around her immediately began to stain red as the blood pooled out around her. She took a shuddering breath. She could see her flesh through the gaping wounds. This was not good.

"Bye, bye, mudblood," giggled Black as she pranced away down the hall, her wild black hair bouncing. Stupid, sadistic Black had obviously enjoyed hurting her. Mac resisted the urge to scream for them to help her. That would only satisfy them, she never showed her weaknesses. It wasn't like they would help, even if she begged. The other three followed, they did whatever the Slytherin higher-ups did. Now what could she do? Mac's vision was going in and out as the blackness closed in, but she kept pushing it out again, because she knew that to pass out would be very, very bad. She was trying to block out the pain so that she could think, but it wasn't working. The pain was just too great.

Her half delusional mind finally came to a decision. The Room of Requirement was nearby, she would go there. She muttered a spell and bandages shot out of her wand, wrapping tightly around her torso and causing her to let out her breath. Then she began to drag herself across the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind her.

________________________________________________________________________

Sirius was in the Room of Requirement, relaxing. He had just wanted to be alone for a little while because, as much as he loved his friends, it got a little tiring being around them literally all of the time. So he occasionally ran off to one of the numerous places in the castle where he could be alone. The Room of Requirement was the best, though, because it was so comfortable, because that was what he wanted it to be like.

He thought about Sasha. He wasn't really sure why he had asked her out, she was just like all the other girls he had dated. He always liked them for a while, then got bored. It was getting rather tiring, really, but he couldn't seem to break the cycle. But he had to have a girlfriend at all times, to keep up his image. And it wasn't like dumping a girl every week or two, or even cheating on them as he so often did, changed anyone's opinions of him. The girls were all in love with him, the guys all wanted to be him, and the Slytherins all detested him, so he didn't know why he should bother to change.

He sighed, flipping over in an attempt to get more comfortable on the couch. Then he froze. The doorknob was turning, and for some reason, he didn't want to get caught here. Maybe he felt like he had been doing something wrong, or maybe he just didn't want anyone to know that he had been thinking. But he didn't know who was coming in, and he didn't want them to see him. So, he made sure that they wouldn't know that it was him.

Mac dragged herself through the door, charming the floor clean behind her so that no one could follow her trail of blood into the room. She was blocking the pain from her mind and trying with all her might not to collapse. The blood was beginning to soak through her bandages, and she felt dizzy from the blood loss.

Luckily, in this room, when she needed a blood replenishing potion, it would be here somewhere. She grabbed the counter and slowly, painfully pulled herself up. She stood unsteadily on her feet and opened a cabinet. There, she thanked Merlin, was the potion. She grabbed the red bottle and allowed herself to slide back down and sit on the floor, where she, with a shaking hand, uncorked the bottle and downed the potion.

She also needed a book of healing spells and, sure enough, there was a bookshelf, but it was all the way across the room. She sighed, then mentally berated herself. She was a witch, so why wasn't she using it? "Accio healing book!"

She grabbed it out of the air, thanks to her quidditch reflexes, and flipped it open, holding it away from her body so it wouldn't get bloodstained. She felt something cold and wet against the side of her face and looked up, startled. "Hello, doggie. What are you doing in here?"

She scratched behind the big, black mutts ears, then went back to her book. However sweet the dog was, she needed to fix her cuts. She was surprised that the dog just flopped down next to her instead of begging for more attention, but glad. After all, she was getting weaker by the minute, and didn't really have time to fulfill the dog's daily attention quota.

When she finally found a spell that she thought would work, about half way though the book, which was now liberally stained with her blood, she pealed off her slashed up robes. Then she began to painfully unwind the bandages encircling her torso. She winced slightly as the bandages tore away some of the newly forming scabs with them. She shed her shirt as well, and was down to just her bra, so she could see the wounds.

They looked as bad, she thought, if not worse than they felt. They were beginning to gush blood again, causing her to feel dizzy, both from blood loss and the sight of the gaping wounds. She quickly said the spell, but it didn't seem to be working. The fact that she could barely speak didn't help. Her vision was going in again, and this time, despite her efforts, she couldn't seem to push it back out. This was not good. The dog's big, black eyes stared into hers. Even the dog looked worried, but that was insane. The dog couldn't possibly know what was going on.

One last time she thought, this is not good. Then she passed out.

Mac woke up a while later, disconcerted for a moment. Where was she? She sat up abruptly as the events leading up to this point came flooding back. Oh, no. But when she looked down, although she was still covered in blood, which was now dried and flaky, there were no cuts. Instead, five bright white scars crisscrossed her torso. It didn't look too wonderful, in her opinion, but, still, it was better than seeing her guts through her stomach. And scars gave character to people's looks, she thought, as well as prompting the telling of interesting stories. Of course, usually the scars weren't this big, but she wasn't going to think about that. No, she was going to think that her new scars were…um…cool.

She pulled out her wand and cleaned off the blood, then put her head back down. What a comfy pillow, heated and everything. But why was there a pillow on the ground? She looked down and was startled for a second by the black furriness of the pillow. But it wasn't a pillow. It was the dog, she realized, as it woke up and licked her face. "Well, aren't you cute. Thanks for being my pillow and all, but I need to go."

She got up to leave, then realized she wasn't wearing a shirt, and hers was in bloody pieces on the ground. For a second she was petrified, wondering how she would get back to her dorm. Then the dog clawed a cabinet, barking. She opened it, and there was a new shirt, just like her old one. Thank Merlin for the Room of Requirements.

After she walked out of the room, the dog turned back into Sirius, who was wondering why he had just done that. She was a Slytherin, why had he helped her? And after he helped her, why had he stayed with her? It was one thing to be human and help a dying person, another to actually, well, actually care. Of course, she thought he was a dog, which helped.

She had seemed so helpless and human. Which was not what he was used to in Slytherins, and it threw him off. That was why he had stayed. Of course it was.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N So here's the next chapter, even though my review numbers are actually going down... it really isn't that hard! And what's up with the people favoriting my story/me and not reviewing? I spend all this time writing for you, you could do that little thing for me. Not that I'm bitter or anything.**

**By the way, this one isn't violent. And it's a kind of random mix of stuff.**

Mac had quidditch practice that night, but she decided to stop by the Room of Requirement first. She had already done her homework, except for potions, which she was putting off until Sev could help her. And she wanted to see if that dog was still there. It was cute and fuzzy, and she could be nice to it, which was weird for her. After all, the only person she had to be nice to was Sev, and they were both Slytherins, and therefore not interested in showing off their friendship. They both knew they cared, and that was plenty. But with so little love in her life, it made her happy to be able to see something that she could love without hiding it. And it wasn't dangerous, to love a dog, it was simple. So she didn't have to wait or feel nervous like she did when placing her trust in another person.

So she was very glad when she stepped into the room, same one as the night before, although thankfully the bloodstains had been cleaned up, and the dog was lying on the black couch, its furry tail wagging energetically and its head flopped down over the arm of the sofa. She grinned, inexplicably happy that the dog was there. She threw herself down on the coach next to it and scratched its head as its tongue lolled out. She didn't know that Sirius was panting because, having seen her on the Marauder's Map approaching the Room of Requirement, he had run all the way there to be there before she was.

"Hello, puppy," she crooned, resting her forehead against the dog's soft fur, which seemed to her surprisingly well kept for a homeless dog. "How was your day? Mine was better than yesterday, because no one cut my skin into little ribbons."

The dog was looking at Mac expectantly, head cocked to one side, so she continued, "All because I stopped those idiots from hexing a first year. I still haven't told Sev about it. I don't think I will: he'll throw a nut. And he's spent years getting on the other Slytherins' good sides, so I wouldn't want him to throw it away for me. He gets enough trouble from the Marauders. They are so full of themselves. They haven't left him alone since they noticed in first year, but he's never done anything to them."

So not true, thought Sirius, he's hexed us plenty of times.

"He only ever starts anything because he knows they will anyways, so might as well get it over with. Because, after all, it's four against one, what chance has he got?"

Hmm, hadn't thought of that. And we did start the original feud, I suppose. But what's it matter now? He dismissed the thought.

"Hmm. You need a name, doggy. You seem like you live around here somewhere, so I'll probably see you again, and I need something to call you."

Oh, no, thought Sirius. Girls picking out nicknames are never good. He knew from past girlfriends. However, he apparently wasn't that good at differentiating types of girls, because Mac was not the type to ever call him something like "Snookums" or "Sweetie Pie." She thought people who said things like that were sort of frightening.

"How about Snuffles?"

The dog just stared at her. She would have been vaguely creeped out if it had responded: even with her lack of experience with animals, she would have known that wasn't normal. Which was why Sirius hadn't done anything, although he honestly didn't object too strenuously.

"Okay, no objection, I like it. Anyways, I have to go to quidditch. It's my first practice, I'm the new beater," Mac smiled, then stopped with her hand resting on the doorknob. That was new information to Sirius, who was one of the Gryffindor beaters.

Mac gave one final comment as she reached the door. "I feel a little crazy for talking to a dog, but it's nice to talk and not be judged or afraid of being blackmailed. Bye, Snuffles."

With that she left, and Sirius turned back into himself, feeling slightly guilty. He wasn't really sure why he was there, but he had been looking at the Marauder's Map, and had seen Mac heading towards the room, and had run there to get there first without really thinking about it. For some reason, it had just seemed like a good idea at the time. He hadn't known that she played quidditch: he had thought Slytherin didn't let girls onto its team. He also hadn't realized that she, or any of the Slytherins, ever thought about how backstabbing their house was. He headed slowly out of the room, thinking about how weird everything suddenly was.

________________________________________________________________________  
At the quidditch pitch, Mac was thinking about how good everything suddenly was. She leapt onto her broom, pushing off the ground quickly, loving the feeling of the wind whipping her hair about her head. She did a few turns, racing around the stadium. It made her forget her problems; all her worries were just swept away behind her, left on the ground.

Therefore, it was only regretfully that she landed a few minutes later as Malfoy called for practice to start. They were playing a scrimmage, and she was overjoyed when she managed to knock Lestrange off his broom. Served him right, after what he'd done to that poor first year. And what he had let Bellatrix do to her. Too bad that Malfoy levitated him before he hit the grass. It would have been fun, Mac thought, to see Lestrange go splat on the ground. Another team member had to walk Lestrange to the hospital then, so the scrimmage was stopped as there weren't enough players, and Malfoy ordered the team to run drills.

By the fact that no one yelled at her at the end of practice, Mac knew she had done a good job. It wasn't like any of them would ever compliment her, so neutral was about the best she could hope for.

When she arrived back at the Slytherin common room that night, tired and sweaty but happy, she sat down next to Sev on "their" couch in the corner. They always sat there because less people noticed them that way. He didn't even glance up as she threw herself down next to him. He knew her so well that he could recognize her footsteps, her way of falling into a seat.

"Hey, Mac," he said. He hadn't talked to her since breakfast the day before, which was odd, although he had passed her in the halls a few times. They had somehow missed each other in all of their meals. "I haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been? You were supposed to meet me last night."

"I was in the Room of Requirement. I fell asleep, didn't wake up until this morning. Sorry," she replied. It was strange how well she could lie to him, her best friend. She really was a Slytherin. And that thought was not necessarily a pleasant one.

And he obviously bought it. "Oh. You still need help with the Potions essay?"

"Yep. How the bloody hell do you make those mixed antidote things?"

He laughed at her disgruntled look. "It's really not that difficult."

She snorted at that. Of course it was easy for Severus Snape, potions genius. But she didn't say that. Instead, she listened to his explanation and by the end of the night she did understand it. As usual, she was grateful for his help and, as usual, she didn't comment. That was just the way it was between them, and neither would ever change it.

The next day, Sev decided to skip breakfast to work on a History of Magic essay he had been putting off. If Mac actually took History of Magic, she would have delayed doing the homework, too. That class was excruciatingly boring. But she didn't feel like going to breakfast and sitting all alone, which also invited the other Slytherins to torture her. Even the younger ones did, only in groups, so that she couldn't hurt them.

Instead, she went down to the kitchens to get something to eat. She wandered down the halls to the picture of the bowl of fruit, then extended her pointer finger and tickled the pear. It giggled and turned into a doorknob, which Mac quickly turned, pulling the door towards herself. Stepping through the space, she was suddenly surrounded by bustling house elves and the smells of breakfast being prepared.

She waved over to Twinkles, her favorite house elf, who raised her small arm and waved frantically back, big ears flapping up and down. She immediately ran over as Mac sat and asked what she wanted. "Just some toast with peanut butter and a cup of coffee, thanks."

Mac propped her feet up on the chair across from her. She would never be so disrespectful as to put her feet on the table, not after how much work the elves put into keeping their kitchen nice. After all, they were the only ones in the school who were unconditionally friendly and nice to her. Twinkles quickly returned, balancing a plate stacked with toast on top of her head with one hand, the other hand holding a steaming blue ceramic mug.

Mac took the dishes and thanked the elf again. Twinkles large, blue eyes sparkled as she bowed again and made her way back over to one of the many stoves. Mac began eating her toast. She loved peanut butter. She loved coffee, too, she thought, as she took a sip. The Hogwarts house elves always made it just right.

Just then, a commotion started over at the door. It looked like the house elves were practically attacking whoever had just come in. "Can I help you?" "No, me!" "I make the best breakfast!" "I'll take your order!"

Mac stared. It seemed a little out of character for the elves to be so pushy: these people must be really good customers. But then the elves fell away and four boys emerged into the kitchen.

Mac rolled her eyes. This was not what she needed right now. The Marauders started walking over towards the table, laughing and joking around. Of course they ate enough to make the house elves that excited and competitive. They hadn't noticed Mac sitting there yet. She just sat there and waited.

Black pulled out a chair. It just happened to be the chair that Mac's feet were presently occupying. "There are feet on my chair."

All four of the boys looked up to see Mac sitting in the corner, one arm thrown loosely over the back of her chair, sneering slightly. They all stared at her. "What are you doing here?"

She quirked an eyebrow at Potter. "I'm allowed to be in here just like everyone else."

He persisted, looking slightly confused. "Yes, but why would you want to be in here? You're a Slytherin, don't you think that house elves are beneath you?"

She snorted at him. "Stereotypical much?"

He apparently couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he sat down, as did Lupin and Pettigrew. Black shoved Mac's feet off of the chair and then sat down. Mac rolled her eyes. "Déjà vu. Why can't you people ever find your own space, you idiots?"

They shrugged. Apparently they weren't morning people, and didn't want a fight before they had eaten. Mac shrugged too, because she wasn't leaving until she was done eating. She took another bite of her toast. Lupin stared at her. "You eat peanut butter with breakfast?"

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?" she replied petulantly. He shook his head quickly, obviously still avoiding a fight. Black looked up from where he had been scratching at the table with his nail. "I like peanut butter."

Everyone stared at him, wondering how he thought that that was relevant and why anyone should care. Mac looked around her and realized that she was agreeing with three of the Marauders. That was just too weird. He looked like he was going to steal a piece of toast off of her plate, but then realized what a horrible idea that was. How could he feel that comfortable around her? Mac wondered.

She had to get out of here! She suddenly pushed out her chair. Getting along with the Marauders was unacceptable. They hadn't even insulted her once! She felt like she should say goodbye, but that would be strange. They weren't friends, or even friendly acquaintances. They were enemies.

So she simply put her plate in the sink and left the kitchen without a word.


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N Here's another chapter. This one has some violence/sexual situations. Please review? My review numbers are going down and it's discouraging me. **

**Anyway, I'm going on vacation (to Mexico! Yay!) so I won't be updating again for at least a week. Serves you all right for not reviewing. And I'm not obsessed with reviews at all. Really.**

A few weeks later, during which nothing particularly eventful happened, was the first quidditch match of the season, Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff. It promised to be an easy one for Slytherin, as Hufflepuff never had a very strong team, but that didn't stop Mac's nerves. Sev tried to calm her down, but he didn't really understand. He had never really understood quidditch. Especially quidditch when she would be the official team scapegoat. But she still appreciated his attempts.

After breakfast, during which she had watched, both appalled and jealous, as Sev ate two whole plates of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, and bacon. She, on the other hand, had eaten a few bites of a piece of toast before she had shoved her plate away, unable to eat any more.

She and Sev had exited the Great Hall and headed for the quidditch pitch. They separated at the fork in the dirt path as he headed for the stands, where he promised to get a good seat so that he could watch her, and she went to the changing rooms to prepare for the match.

Once there, she grabbed her quidditch robes and slipped off into the corner to change. Thanking Merlin that her teammates weren't there yet, she set down her quidditch robes on a bench and slipped off her school robes. "Look at the little mudblood, so eager to take off her robes."

Her cheeks flushed as she looked up at Malfoy, then they turned even darker as she became angry that he could make her blush. Quickly pulling on her Slytherin green quidditch robes, she snapped, "Sod off, Malfoy."

"Now, now, play nice." He took another step towards her. Mac became uncomfortably aware of the wall behind her, preventing her from escaping. She didn't have her wand, and her mind was whirring, trying to think up an escape plan.

Malfoy's head snapped up at the sound of the door opening. Mac let out a sigh of relief as he retreated, saying, "We'll finish this later."

Regulus Black entered the changing room, his face registering shock for an instant at the scene before him, but then it smoothed over. He knew better than to question Malfoy. He was in that group, the future death eater group, and knew better than to question. Mac quickly exited the changing room, having absolutely no desire to see them change.

She waited, trying to keep her breathing even, outside of the changing room until the other six Slytherin players had assembled in a small circle for the captain's pep talk. Malfoy didn't have much to say. "Okay, this is our first game of the season, but it should be easy. Feel free to foul them, just try not to get caught. That much fouling is only necessary against Gryffindor. This is Hufflepuff. They're nothing but a pathetic bunch of mudbloods and blood traitors, and if we don't beat them I will kill you all."

Mac would have laughed, but he sounded completely serious. And she knew he was capable of carrying through on that threat.

"So let's get out there and cream them!"

What an inspiring speech, thought Mac, but her sarcasm could not dissipate the growing dread she felt. Why had she done this? She didn't like people looking at her, yet she had volunteered to fly around in front of the entire school. Well, it was too late to change now, so she bravely stepped out into the field as the announcer called out, "The Slytherin team: Malfoy, Lestrange, Kraler, Zariken, Rush, Bowne, and Black!"

They walked out to the center to the cheers of the green dressed quarter of the crowd and booing from the rest. "And the Hufflepuff team: Diggory, McGregor, Taylor, Cadogan, Hadley, Rye, and Ames!"

They received the opposite of Mac's team: three quarters cheering, especially loud from the yellow section, and booing from Slytherin, almost as noisy as the booing that the Slytherin team had gotten.

Diggory and Malfoy shook hands, their knuckles turning white. It appeared as if they were each trying to break the other's fingers. Mac had noticed that this always happened in Slytherin games, but never in others, so she assumed Malfoy initiated the bone crunching attempts, that git. Or maybe all the other teams just hated the Slytherin team the most. That was also entirely possible.

But all thoughts of anything other than the game fled when Madam Lansing blew her whistle, beginning the game. She vaguely heard the announcer call out, "And its Diggory with the quaffle, passes to Taylor, who passes to… ooo! Nice bludger by Slytherin newbie Rush, knocked the quaffle right out of the air!"

She was pleased with herself, and flew after Malfoy, who now had the quaffle, brutally slamming away a bludger headed towards him. She didn't like protecting Malfoy, but it would help them win. "And Malfoy shoots and scores! Ten-nothing Slytherin!"

Mac allowed herself a momentary grin before returning her attention to the game. Hufflepuff beater Cadogan had just hit the bludger towards her, which was not a smart move on his part. She hit it back towards him with all her strength: it was good to show the other team early on that, even though it was her first year on the team, she should not be messed with. He did a funny twist in the air to avoid it, and she flew off towards the other end of the pitch, hitting a bludger towards McGregor, causing him to fumble the quaffle. But Diggory caught it, and shot. Bowne missed the save, causing Malfoy to scream at him and the announcer to shout, "Ten-Ten! Hufflepuff scores!"

Mac was tempted to chuckle, seeing Malfoy yell at someone else, but didn't for fear of incurring his wrath. Instead she flew towards an oncoming bludger, saving Kraler from needing to go through strange acrobatics to escape it, and slammed it away towards the Hufflepuff keeper, Rye. She dodged it, and Kraler passed to Lestrange, who scored. "Twenty-Ten Slytherin!"

A minute later, Malfoy scored, to groans from most of the crowd who realized that Slytherin was pulling ahead. "Thirty-Ten Slytherin!"

Diggory had the quaffle and was flying for the goal. Hadley hit a bludger towards Bowne, hoping to incapacitate the Slytherin keeper so that Diggory could score, but Zarikan hit it away. Mac decided that he was also a pretty good beater, but she was better, she thought. Not that anyone on her team would ever agree, they would never compliment her on anything.

"Ames has seen the snitch! Black is following, but he's too far behind!"

Mac flew towards the racing seekers at top speed, seeing the bludger heading towards her. At the last second, she pulled her bat out to the side, swinging as hard as she could, praying that she wouldn't miss. If it was a foot too far to the right, she would be massacred for destroying Slytherin's chances by knocking out their seeker.

But then it was too late, the bludger was hit, and flying towards the seekers. With a dull thud, it hit, right in the middle of his back. A body fell off a broom, and the crowds were all screaming. "Slytherin wins! First time seeker Regulus Black catches the snitch due to an amazing bludger by Rush! One hundred eighty-ten to Slytherin!"

Mac breathed out a sigh of relief to see that Ames had been magically caught before reaching the ground, and was fine. Although he would have a huge bruise on his back until he got to the hospital, Mac was very glad she hadn't killed anyone in her first ever quidditch game.

The Slytherin quidditch team touched down to tumultuous applause and cheering from their fans, who were now swarming out onto the field. Mac was a little sore knowing that, if she had been anyone else, they would have been carrying her off the field on their shoulders. But instead, they all ignored her, because she was only a mudblood.

But she pushed away her feelings of self-pity when Sev appeared on the field. "That was bloody brilliant! I never understood why people liked quidditch, but now I do! You were amazing!"

"Thanks," she grinned. He grinned back, calming down a little and realizing that his enthusiasm had been totally out of character, and for once, he didn't care. It wasn't like he had hugged her or anything equally mortifying, at least for a Slytherin. They headed back up to the castle, knowing that there was probably a celebration party going on in the Slytherin common room, but not really caring. They would only talk to each other at the party, anyway. Neither really liked the Slytherin parties, where everyone got drunk and either made out or tortured the house's weaklings, which, at all previous parties, had included Mac.

Mac noticed that all of the Hufflepuffs she passed were giving her death glares. She had gotten their seeker sent to the hospital, but he would likely be out by morning. Luckily for her, Hufflepuffs weren't really the vindictive type. It was the quidditch obsessed Gryffindors, also scowling at her, that she would have to watch out for. They hated all of the Slytherin quidditch players, but especially the one's they thought threatened their chance at the title, which they had one last year. Actually, the Gryffindors hated all of the Slytherins, but especially the quidditch players, and even more especially the good ones. Usually things didn't get ugly with them until a few weeks before the Slytherin-Gryffindor match, but they might make an exception for her. But at the moment, she didn't care. She had won the game for her house, and she felt great!

So when they got back to the common room and the raucous party, she decided to stay for a little while, even though Sev was going to bed. Normally, she would have seen this as the terrible idea it was, but tonight nothing seemed as horrible as it usually would. She ran down the dark stone stairs to the seventh year girls' dorm, quickly washed her face, and changed her clothes into her casual, muggle attire. She wore it because it was more comfortable, even though it made most of the house glare at her, or worse.

When she got back to the common room, she didn't see anyone who she thought would want to talk to her, so she wandered over to the food table. Ooo, look, cookies, she thought, picking up a chocolate chip one. She turned back away from the table and did a double take when she realized that Malfoy was standing right behind her. His blue eyes were boring into hers, and she felt inexplicably nervous. It wasn't like he could hurt her with all these people around.

"That was a great move today," he said, stepping closer.

"Umm, thanks," she replied, slightly confused by his compliment. She tried to walk away, but he grabbed her wrist. "Want to take a walk with me."

So that was why he kept looking at her like that, she realized. She tried to shrug off his arm, but he wouldn't let go. It hadn't been a question- Malfoy was the type who always got what he wanted- but Mac still answered, hoping to deter him, "No thanks."

"Stupid mudblood. No one passes up the chance to be with Lucius Malfoy," he snarled, pulling her towards the door. It was strange how quickly his mood had changed, but he was good at faking. Anything to get what he desired. Mac opened her mouth to tell him to let her go, but he was too quick, pulling out his wand and saying, "Silencio!"

She kept opening and closing her mouth, but it wasn't working because of the charm. She reached for her wand, but realized that she had never put it back in her pocket after the game. By this point, he had opened the door. She tried to pull away, but he was at least half a foot taller than her, and wouldn't let her go. Her other hand was scratching at his, but it was like he couldn't even feel it. She wasn't walking, but her feet were sliding across the floor, forcing her to follow Malfoy.

She saw Narcissa Black staring at her, glaring. Mac knew what she must have thought, she was Malfoy's girlfriend, but that had never stopped him from doing whatever he wanted. But Narcissa always got back at the other girls, and Mac knew it would only be a matter of time before Narcissa also got her revenge against her.

But then the door shut, and she was alone with Malfoy, who dragged her down the hall and pushed her into an alcove. She tried to punch him, but he grabbed her wrists in one hand. There was nothing she could do, he was pushing her against the wall. She attempted to knee him, to do anything to stop him, but he was too close. His whole body was pressed up against her, and the sensation made her shudder. She wished she was wearing her robes, then she wouldn't be able to feel him so much. But she was only wearing muggle jeans and a t-shirt. She tried to make her mind blank, tried not to think about what he was about to do to her.

She was not successful.

**A/N Cliffie!!! Muahahahaha!**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N Well, I'm back from Mexico. It was a lot of fun- warm, sunny, and I got to snorkel, go to the beach, and visit the Mayan ruins. Thanks to everyone who wished me a good trip!**

**I've noticed there are a lot of people who have this story on alert but still aren't reviewing. It only takes a second, and I appreciate it very much: it is part of what makes posting this worthwhile. To all of you who do review, many thanks, and here's the next chapter!**

She couldn't believe that Malfoy was actually about to do this to her. She shut her eyes tightly, hoping that it would be over quickly. She felt his hands sliding down her sides, then felt them fall away from her, catching slightly on her shirt. Malfoy was on the floor, a huge black dog on top of him, looking ready to tear out his throat. Malfoy screamed. The dog's lips were pulled back from its teeth as it growled. He had dropped his wand, so he only had his hands to hold the dog away. His arms were already covered in bleeding bite marks.

The dog's sharp teeth were snapping, its muzzle bloody, the red stains shining in the dim light. Its big paws held Malfoy to the ground, unable to move as it mauled him. Malfoy finally managed to shove it off of him and ran, without a backwards glance, limping slightly on his wounded leg, his shredded robes billowing behind him.

Mac unfroze, and collapsed onto the floor in a small heap. The dog came over and nuzzled at the heap. A hand emerged and ruffled its fur, not minding that it was covered in blood, so it knew she was all right. It curled around her protectively and the two, minutes later, were asleep.

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The next morning, Mac woke up and wondered, groggily, where she was. Then she remembered the events of last night. She had woken up sometime in the early morning with a fluffy dog pillow, just like the morning in the Room of Requirement. She had gotten up, stiff from sleeping on the cold stone floor, and headed back to her dorm. After all, that hall was heavily traveled and she didn't want to be found there in the morning, since she knew that whoever found her would not be sympathetic. They never were.

So Mac had walked back, leaving the dog to sleep. She decided that, since it was apparently a homeless dog, it was used to the hard floor and probably had nowhere else to go, anyways, except the Room of Requirement. Normally that thought would have brought her to wonder how a dog got into the Room of Requirement, but she was exhausted, both physically and mentally, so she had just stumbled to her bed.

She had fallen asleep as soon as she clambered into her bed, and now, upon waking up again, she just wanted to go back to sleep. It wasn't so easy this time, however. Her mind kept replaying the horror, repeating, "What if? What if?"

She tried to push the thoughts away, rolling over and pulling the emerald green covers more tightly about her body, still clothed in the jeans and t-shirt from last night, now slightly bloody, and even her shoes. After five more minutes of this, she had given in and rolled out of bed. Peering around the room, she realized she must have slept late, as none of here dorm mates were present. Luckily, it was a Sunday. Not that she particularly cared if she missed classes; she just wasn't in the mood to make up excuses.

She stood, rubbing at her eyes, then went to her trunk at the end of her bed. Undoing the locking spells she had placed upon it to prevent her roommates from snooping, she flipped open the lid and rummaged around for new clothes. Finding some near the bottom, she straightened and made her way into the bathroom. She was going to burn everything she was wearing: she never wanted to see it again.

After locking the door, she turned towards the shower stalls, thinking that the massaging hot water was just what she needed right now. She did a double take and turned back towards the wall with the sinks and mirrors.

When Mac saw her reflection, she clamped a hand over her mouth to prevent the scream that had been bubbling up from escaping. She couldn't think coherently, she was completely shocked. She had known Narcissa Black would get her revenge, but she hadn't expect it to be this quick or this painful.

If she had been any other girl in the school, she would have started to cry. The situation warranted it, but Mackenzie Rush did not cry over such paltry things as hair. In fact, Mac didn't cry at all: being the Slytherin outcast had toughened her up. Showing emotion was dangerous. But it was horrible, what Narcissa and probably her band of bitchy followers had done to her.

Her hair was red with gold liberally interspersed: Gryffindor colors, and it clashed horribly with her shade of skin. It also flashed slightly, drawing even more attention to itself. But that wasn't the worst part, not nearly the worst part. Someone had charmed her hair to spell out words on its own, and the things it was saying about Mac weren't pretty. It seemed to switch every few minutes, between, "Mudblood Whore" and "Gryffindor's Slut" and other such pleasant names.

She pulled herself up onto the black marble countertop next to the sink. She sat there, swinging her legs and hitting her heals against the cabinets, as she tried to decide what to do. She knew that there would be no way for it to come out for at least a few weeks: Narcissa was, after all, a Slytherin, and she would want her revenge to last.

If she had been a Hufflepuff, she would have just worn a hat for a week. If she had been a Ravenclaw, she would have holed up in the library, trying to find a countercurse. If she had been a Gryffindor, she would have laughed and let everyone see it, then hexed Narcissa to smithereens. But she was a Slytherin, so her response had to be clever, unexpected. After a while, she suddenly grinned and, hopping off of the counter, left the bathroom.

________________________________________________________________________

Sirius and James had been bored. It was a Sunday morning, and they had nothing to do. James didn't know that Sirius would rather have slept, as he had gotten into their dorm at five in the morning. Sirius wasn't about to tell him. So they decided to take the secret passage into Hogsmeade, visit Zonko's for more equipment, and then plan a wonderful prank. They actually did that a lot: neither was full of original ideas for curing boredom, from which they frequently suffered.

They had gone past the stone witch statue and through the dark, dirt tunnel into Hogsmeade. When they emerged, under James invisibility cloak, in the cellar of Honeydukes, they snuck out into the crisp morning air of Hogsmeade. When no one was looking, they took off the cloak. They looked old enough not to be caught as students who weren't supposed to be in Hogsmeade that day.

After restocking their pranking supplies, buying dungbombs, biting teacups, and more, they wanted to hang out for a bit before returning to the castle, so they wandered into the Three Broomsticks for a drink. They both gave Madam Rosmerta, the young bartender, their trademark grins, to which she rolled her eyes, and then they settled down in a corner booth. She knew they weren't supposed to be there, but nothing she could do discouraged it, so she put up with their visits. In their own way, they were good boys, she thought. And they were only a few years younger than her.

"So, Padfoot, what's been going on? I've noticed you haven't been around as much lately," started James, leaning across the table and looking into his best friend's gray eyes.

Sirius groaned, averting his eyes, then muttered, "I should have known that you had an ulterior motive for suggesting this trip."

"Of course I did. I'm a Marauder," James grinned. Sirius rolled his eyes and replied, "I thought it was a Marauder rule that one Marauder can't use his Marauder skills against another."

"What number rule was it?" asked James.

"I don't know, does it matter?" answered Sirius.

"You can't get out of something using the rules unless you know which rule it is. So answer my question," said James smugly.

"Is that a rule?" asked Sirius. James nodded. "What number?"

"Two hundred eighty three," he replied. At Sirius' moan, he explained, "I thought that was a good one to know the number of, because it's kind of useless if you don't. Now, stop procrastinating and answer."

"But we all know I'm good at procrastinating…" At the look on James' face, Sirius backtracked. "Fine. I've just wanted to be alone. I've been going to the Room of Requirement a lot."

He felt bad that he wasn't telling his friend the truth. He tried to convince himself it was all right, that it wasn't actually lying, just not telling the whole truth, but he still felt bad.

James probably saw his upset expression, because he decided to drop the subject. That was a first, Sirius thought: James being tasteful. To change the subject, James said, "Oh. Well, what have you been planning for our next prank? I thought that at breakfast next week…"

________________________________________________________________________

Mac had put on her black beanie, hair tucked up underneath it, and a green sweatshirt with her jeans and headed towards the passageway. She knew a place in Hogsmeade that would be perfect for her plan. She checked that no one was coming down the hall, then muttered the password to the statue of a witch, which slid to the side. She slipped into the dark passage it concealed and lit her wand when the statue moved back into place, completing the darkness.

She walked along in the semi dark, black sneakers scuffing at the dirt floor. She was so lost in her thoughts that she barely noticed the chattering of voices growing closer. She turned a corner and looked up, seeing two figures, which had also stopped and were staring at her. Potter and Black.

"What are you doing here?" all three said in unison. She rolled her eyes and said, "Obviously, I'm going to Hogsmeade. I don't really think it's any of your business why."

Black's eyes were sliding away from her face, but not in the direction that they normally went when he was looking at a girl. He stared at her hat. "It isn't that cold out."

Mac was getting a little nervous. No one should see her with her hair like this.

Black noticed that her hair was all tucked up under the hat. Why was that? Curious, he slowly pulled out his wand and said, "Accio hat!"

Mac made a wild grab at it and missed. It zoomed out of her reach and into Black's waiting hand. Then suddenly both Black and Potter were gaping at her. They had seen her hair. She pulled out her wand, snarling and ready to hex them both, when Potter choked out, "Who did that to you?"

Mac wondered why he wasn't laughing. For some reason she actually answered, "Narcissa Black. And probably her idiot friends, too."

Black flinched slightly at the name. Mac knew that Narcissa was his cousin, and that Black had been disowned and was considered a bloodtraitor. He probably didn't like to hear about any of his family members, of which there were many in her house. Mac was still confused, though, so she asked, "Why aren't you laughing?"

They both looked shocked, and then insulted, which just confused Mac even more. Black spoke first. "You honestly think that we would laugh at something that cruel? When have we ever been that mean?"

Mac answered, truthfully, "Yes, I'd think you would laugh. You laugh when you hurt Sev, or prank innocent bystanders. You think it's funny, even when they get hurt. How is this different? Or is it just not funny because you didn't cause it?"

"This is different," protested Potter loudly, trying to think up something that was a better argument. His retort had been weak, and he knew it. Black hadn't even bothered to say anything: he couldn't think of an adequate response, a way to tell her that those people, for some reason, deserved it.

"Of course it is," she replied, her tone laced with sarcasm and malice. She had started out just explaining her confusion, but now she was angry.

With that she walked over and snatched her hat back from Black. She proceeded to brush past them and then stalked off down the corridor to Hogsmeade. She had more important things to do than to talk to those prats. The two boys stared after her, wondering why they thought they were different than those Slytherins. They knew they were, though. Weren't they?


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N I know it's been a really long time, but I've been working on a project (if the name History Fair sounds familiar to anyone, then you know what I mean when I say that this project ate up my life.) But, I'm back, as the competition was today. However, I made it to the next round, so at the end of March/beginning of April, I'll have another no-update period. Sorry.**

**Now that I'm done explaining to you all why I temporarily abandoned you, here is the next chapter! Enjoy (and review)!**

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating dinner. James and Sirius had been waiting all day, hoping to see Rush again, but they hadn't yet. She hadn't been at the Slytherin table for any of the tables, and they were beginning to think that her cursed hair had forced her into hiding. They couldn't really blame her for it, if it was true.

Everyone in the Great Hall was talking, laughing. The doors to the room were closed. But all of the sudden they groaned, and both doors opened at once, causing everyone, students and teachers, to stare. In walked a girl, a very different looking girl. It was Rush, and the effects of Narcissa's curse were no longer visible.

Because she no longer had hair. Everyone gaped. Her head was, instead, covered in a green dragon, tattooed on, its spiked tail swishing around her neck, its black eyes flashing and teeth flashing. Its neck curled so that its head rested above her right eyebrow. Its clawed feet seem to grip into her head as it snarled, then breathed out a burst of flame that spread across her forehead and down next to her eye. She was beautiful, just not in the normal sense of the word.

The corner of her mouth twitched slightly, Sirius noticed, but she was staring straight ahead. She gave no other sign that she had noticed the attention, or that she was amused by it. He wondered what she was thinking. He glanced over at Narcissa, and he could tell what she was thinking. It was not complimentary to Rush: Narcissa was furious. She hated to be outsmarted, and she hated that her revenge had been unsuccessful. But she couldn't do anything here, in front of all of the teachers. Rush had very cleverly shown everyone that she had won round one, but Narcissa was obviously planning on starting round two.

Sirius was grinning, happy from a combination of Rush's brilliant undoing of the revenge and his cousin's anger. James was grinning, too, but probably just from the first reason. And because Lily Evans was sitting a little ways down the table. Remus and Peter looked confused, as they had no idea why Rush would have gotten rid of her hair.

The whole school appeared to be wondering the same thing. This scandal would be causing a lot of gossip over the next few days, and many rumors of reasons why she would shave off her hair. Including: a fire crab lit it on fire, she was going prematurely bald, and Rush is in a secret society of dragon riders, and the tattoo is their mark. Although with a tattoo that obvious, is would be hard for the society to stay secret, Sirius thought. But he was one of the handful of people who knew the real reason.

________________________________________________________________________

Sev was at the Slytherin table, eating sparingly and wondering why Mac was, once again, missing meals. But then, he heard the loud groaning of wood and turned towards the opening doors of the Great Hall. It was Mac, but she looked different than he had ever seen her: her head was shaven, and a snarling dragon was tattooed onto her head, its emerald scales glistening.

She settled down across from him, and he gestured at her head with his fork. "So, Mac, what's with the new look? I thought you wouldn't get a tattoo."

"Well," she began, heaving a sigh, "Narcissa and her cronies cursed my hair, so I figured that the best solution was to get rid of it. I got the tattoo both because it was cool and to show them I'm not afraid of them."

"Why did she curse you, though?" asked Sev, accepting her reasoning.

"You don't know?" she replied, looking a little upset, but trying to mask her pain and to keep her voice steady. "Malfoy, he… at the party yesterday he dragged me out into the hall, tried to… he tried to…"

Sev didn't know what to say to that. The appropriate response probably would have been to hug her, but he never even did that in private, never mind in the middle of the Great Hall, especially when a number of curious eyes were focused on her. So he settled for trying to change the topic, although his eyes hardened a little. If Mac had noticed, she would have known that, eventually, Malfoy would pay.

"It's okay, you don't need to say anything else," he said, as gently as he was capable. She gave him a relieved half smile, and he surreptitiously squeezed her hand under the table, where no one would see. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, conveying a mutual feeling of trust and comfort that didn't need to be put into words. That was lucky for them, because, most likely, neither would have been capable.

They quickly turned back to their food, the emotional moment over. They didn't talk for the rest of the meal, as both were feeling a little awkward. When they finished eating, both got up and headed for the door to get out of the Great Hall, and away from all of the students who were still gazing inquisitively at Mac.

They walked out into the hall, and Sev asked Mac if she wanted to go to the library. She agreed, so they went and found a table in the corner, where they did homework until curfew, after which they went back to the Slytherin common room and played Exploding Snap. After four games, of which Sev won three and Mac one, they went off to bed. Mac put a shield charm around her bed to keep Narcissa and the other Slytherin girls out. She didn't trust them, especially after she had ruined their first attempt at revenge.

The next morning Mac met Sev in the common room and they headed down to breakfast. They ate pancakes with syrup and quizzed each other for their transfiguration exam that afternoon. But the day got more interesting when they left the Great Hall. Narcissa Black was waiting in the Entrance Hall, and she moved swiftly towards Mac as soon as she saw her.

Mac just stared at her. Mac knew she had won, what more was Narcissa going to do? But Narcissa just kept coming. She stopped right in front of Mac and said, "Enjoying your new look, Rush?" She looked slightly sickened by the tattoo, as if it were disgusting.

"Well, at least I'm looking better than you. Are you carrying around a bag of dungbombs, or is your nose just naturally like that?" Mac asked. The dragon on her head snapped its jaws at Narcissa, as if it knew she didn't like her and wanted to bite her.

Narcissa snarled, "You bitch!"

By now, everyone was finishing their breakfast and coming out into the Entrance Hall, where they stopped to watch the fight. Even the Marauders were watching, and usually they didn't bother with fights. They had probably decided that any good fight would have to involve one of them. Mac just cocked an eyebrow at Narcissa's outburst and replied, "Personally, I don't think I've done a thing. You're just overly possessive of your arrogant, cheating boyfriend."

At this Narcissa slapped her, as hard as she could, across the face. Lowering her hand, Mac was left with a red handprint on her face. Everyone watching flinched, expecting Mac to do the same, or to apologize, or slap her back, or even start crying. Everyone, that is, except for Sev, who was the only one who truly knew her, and knew that she would do none of those things. She was tougher than that, and she'd had to take a lot more than a slap during her years living surrounded by the blood-obsessed Slytherins.

Instead Mac stayed strong, ignoring her bruising cheek, and sneered at Narcissa, "Is that really the best you have? That's just pathetic. So girly, but I guess that's what I should expect from you."

Narcissa looked outraged that Mac would continue to talk back to her, and raised her hand as if to slap Mac again. This time, though, Mac was prepared. Without a warning, she drew back her fist and slammed it into Narcissa's face, hard. It met with her nose with a sickening crunch. Mac laughed, the sound oddly frightening, sending a shiver down the other students' spines. Quidditch and exercising with Sev had given her the muscles to pack quite a punch. "That's how you fight."

The group of people watching clapped or laughed or flinched, depending on whom they supported and how they felt about fights. A few even yelled at Mac or Narcissa, trying to goad them on and start a real fight. Stupid bloodthirsty students, thought Mac. They just wanted a show.

Narcissa sat down on the ground, whimpering. Her group of followers crowded around, handing her a handkerchief to stop the bleeding of her nose. They helped her up, and she gave Mac a death glare before hurrying off to the hospital wing to get her nose fixed. Mac stared after her, expression hard, before pulling out her wand and muttering, "Scourgify."

The blood staining her pale knuckles disappeared. The crowd was dispersing, realizing that the show was over, and Mac walked over to where Sev was leaning against the wall. He stared at her with an aloof expression, but his twinkling eyes gave him away. "Muggle fighting. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"I'd only be ashamed of myself if I lost a fight, muggle or magical, to a wimp like Narcissa," Mac chuckled at him. He smiled, and replied, "I do have to agree, it was beautiful, watching her nose smash and all that blood come out."

She shook her head at him, and they continued on their way to class. With two big dramas involving her in two days, almost everyone was staring at her in the halls, whispering behind their hands when they thought she wasn't looking. She just ignored and continued walking, talking quietly with Sev. But then Sev had to go to Ancient Runes, which Mac wasn't taking, and she had to continue walking all by herself.

One Gryffindor girl was even brave enough to approach her in the hall, hoping to get a new tidbit of gossip to spread around. She asked Mac why she and Narcissa were fighting, if it had anything to do with her shaven head. Mac had practically growled at her to mind her own business, and the girl had taken a step back, which had caused Mac to scoff, "And you Gryffindors call yourselves brave."

She wondered why Potter and Black hadn't spread around the prime piece of gossip they had, about what had happened to her hair. Usually they would do anything for a laugh. But of course that was too good to be true, because just then Black stopped her in the hall. Luckily, it was an empty hall. Mac leaned against the wall. "So, what do you want? Are you going to blackmail me?"

"What? No," he said, looking taken aback, his stormy gray eyes questioning, obviously wondering why she would think that. "Actually, I just wanted to say your revenge was brilliant. I like your tattoo, by the way."

"Um, thanks," she replied, sounding slightly confused. She was used to people wanting something from her. The dragon, however, seemed to enjoy the compliment, and breathed out fire that flamed across Mac's forehead. Dragons don't understand ulterior motives, just eating things, having babies, and other equally simple functions. Black stared at it, appearing entranced by the fire. Mac grinned. Not many people had magical tattoos, as they were quite painful to get, and few had ones as large or elaborate as hers.

"Also," Black continued, snapping out of his reverie, "it was brilliant, the way you punched Narcissa this morning."

"Um, thanks," she replied, even more confused. "I have to get to class."

She hurried away, glancing back once over her shoulder. When she saw the strange, thoughtful look on his face as he stared after her, she regretted looking back.


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N I know it's been a long time, but I'm not going to apologize. I've had the chapter written, but I didn't feel like taking the time to post it. Or to improve it too much. After all, you can't seem to take the time to write me a review. 52 people read the last chapter. 3 reviewed. That's pathetic. If you've bothered to read this far, then why don't you care enough to give me a couple of words? It really makes no sense to me: it only takes a few seconds. So, I'm not going to threaten to withhold chapters, I'm just saying that reviews motivate me to take a few seconds of MY time to post.**

Mac nibbled the end of her quill, trying to decide what to write. She had woken up early that morning and hadn't wanted to head up to breakfast without Sev, so she had decided to write to Jamie. She never wanted to tell Jamie about the bad things that happened to her at Hogwarts sometimes: he would want to protect her, but he was a muggle. There was nothing he could do.

_Dear Jamie,_

_School's been going well. Or, as well as school ever goes. Defense is still my favorite class, and we're learning a lot about dueling at the moment, which is fun. It means that we have permission to fight in class. I've been getting a lot of work though, since it's NEWT year. Especially with quidditch taking up a lot of my time… Had I told you I made the quidditch team? I'm a beater (I hit the bludgers [attacking balls] at people on the other team with a bat). Yes, I do enjoy it. We won our first match against Ravenclaw. I hit the other team's seeker(trying to catch the snitch, which is worth 150 points and ends the game) when he went after the snitch, so our seeker got it and we won. Yes, that is violent (but he was OK), which reminds me…_

_I got in a fight with Narcissa Black, another girl in my year and house, a little while back. She slapped me, but I punched her in the nose. I think I won that one, don't you? Just like I always beat you. Admit it, I'm tougher. Come on, you know it's true. And I know you'd prefer to hear about a magical fight, but that's all I've got for you at the moment. Also, I got a tattoo. It's of a dragon, and, yes it is a magical tattoo, so it moves. I'll have to cover it up around muggles._

_No, there haven't been any explosions. At least not that I've seen. I heard that a first year Hufflepuff caught his partners eyebrows on fire in transfiguration, and then McGonagall made him cry. He had to go to the hospital for a calming draught. _

_How have you been doing? Enjoying school? You had better owl back! Especially since you don't have an owl…send this one back with your letter. Which I will be expecting to be more than a sentence or two long. Or the owl will peck you to death. Tell your parents that I say hello._

_Miss you,_

_Mac _

_PS There are some chocolate frogs in the package. I know you like those- it's bribery to get a letter back._

After the letter was finished, Mac sealed it with a lump of green wax and got up from her seat on the plush emerald couch in the Slytherin common room to bring it to the Owlery. She didn't own an owl, so she would have to borrow one of the school's.

It was a long walk from the Slytherin dorms in the dungeon to the tower that the Owlery was in. She sighed as she walked up yet another flight of stairs: wasn't quidditch practice enough exercise? It was too early in the morning for this. One of the only things she missed from muggle life was elevators. Those were nice. They had them at the mall, at apartment buildings, at any large structure really. But, no, Hogwarts had to force its students to walk. And this staircase was facing the wrong direction, so this was going to take even longer. She groaned and kept walking.

Stupid letter. She finally reached the Owlery, panting slightly by that point. Now she just had to find a school owl. But there was already someone in the room. Lupin was standing by the window, all the owls scattered away from him. He looked up as he saw Mac enter. Gesturing around him, he said, sounding tired and letdown, "They don't like me."

Looking at the owls, Mac had to admit that it appeared to be true. She chose an owl and, taking it from its perch, tied the letter to its leg. She walked over to where Lupin was standing and tossed the bird out the window. Then she turned to him and held her hand out expectantly. He stared at it for a minute, and then asked, "What?"

Mac sighed, "Well, give it to me. I'll do it for you."

She had no idea why she was doing this, being nice to a Gryffindor, a Marauder, no less. But there was no one else here, so it wouldn't do any harm. She didn't think that Lupin would tell anyone that he needed, or accepted, help from a Slytherin. He appeared to consider for a moment. "You can't look at it."

"Merlin, Lupin, how paranoid can you be? I don't care about your mail. Now give it here," Mac ordered. Lupin stared at her for a moment, then slowly put the letter in her hand. As he did, his sleeve pulled up a bit. Merlin, that boy had a lot of scars. Mac couldn't help staring for a moment. Lupin snatched his hand back quickly, looking a combination of nervous and ashamed.

There was nothing Mac could say to him. Still facing him, she reached up to get an owl off of a higher perch, knowing that her shirt pulled up as she did so.

Sirius lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He had already taken a shower and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, his weekend clothes, and he was bored. James wasn't awake yet, nor was Peter, and Remus was out sending a letter to his parents. They worried about him. Although, Sirius wasn't really sure how he was going to get an owl to send it with: owls tended to mistrust Moony. He thought it was because they could sense what he was.

After a few minutes, Sirius couldn't stand the silence anymore. So he went over to James to wake him up, jumping onto his bed. James looked up groggily, his black hair even messier than usual, sticking out from his head in all direction. "What do you want, Padfoot?"

"I'm bored," he complained. "And hungry. Let's go to breakfast."

"Paddy, I want to sleep. Stop whining. You can go by yourself if you want," James mumbled. "Or take Moony. He's always up early."

"He's sending his parents a letter. He said he'd meet us at breakfast. Come on, Prongs!" whined Sirius. James sighed and rolled out of bed, calling back as he went into the bathroom, "Wake up Wormtail. He'll be upset if we leave him here when we go eat."

"Fine," replied Sirius. He went over and shook Pete awake. He would follow James and Sirius anywhere, so he was fairly easy to convince to get up. The added incentive of food didn't hurt, either.

To pass the time while the other two got ready, Sirius stood in front of his mirror with his comb. It wasn't as if he got his hair to look as perfect as it did by accident…

Half an hour later, Sirius and Peter had finally gotten James out of their dorm, where he had been trying to make sure he looked perfect for his "Lily blossom." Sirius sighed. He was probably planning to try asking her to go to Hogsmeade with him this weekend… for the fifth time this week. It got quite tiring, really. James just had to be difficult and fall for the one girl who wouldn't kill for a chance to date a Marauder. Well, perhaps not a Marauder. Just James and Sirius, as the girls who liked Remus were different and, to be honest, girls weren't that big on Pete.

At breakfast, all of the boys began piling food onto their plates. Remus joined them a moment later. Once they got through plate number one, the conversation began. Remus couldn't hold it in any longer. "You remember that Slytherin, Rush? I saw her in the owlery."

"What, Moony?" asked James. "Was she giving you a hard time?"

"No, no. It's just… have you ever seen her stomach?" he burst out.

"Um, no, Moony," spluttered James. "Why would I have? For that matter, why would you have?"

"Her shirt pulled up when she was reaching for an owl," retorted Remus. "But that isn't the point. It's covered in scars."

"Well, a lot of people have scars," commented Peter.

"No, Pete, they don't," sighed Remus. "They looked… they looked almost like my scars."

When everyone else looked up in shock, he shook his head. "Not like I think she's got a… furry little problem. I just mean they were big, and there were several of them."

Sirius looked down at his food, relieved. He didn't relish being forced to explain how he knew the scars weren't because she was a werewolf, but because she had been attacked by her own house mates.

They lapsed into silence again for a while. But finally, they could remain quiet no longer, and Peter said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm planning on asking Mary to Hogsmeade this weekend."

"That's nice, Pete," said James, completely distracted by Lily's entrance.

"Which one is she?" Sirius asked. There were so many girls around here, he couldn't remember.

"She's in Hufflepuff," Pete replied. "Are any of you going with anyone?"

"No. You know I can't do that," muttered Remus, glaring around as if daring anyone to contradict his statement.

"I finally broke up with the last girl," said Sirius, "I'm looking forward to not being cooed over by another bimbo."

Remus rolled his eyes, knowing that this was not the time that all girls weren't bimbos, just the ones that Sirius chose to date. Then they all looked at James, dreading his annoying, although expected, answer.

"Of course I am," exclaimed James, "I'm asking my darling Lily flower!"

He got up and practically bounded away down the table towards Lily. Remus sighed, "You had to bring that up, didn't you Pete."

Sirius groaned, thinking, here we go again.

Also at breakfast, although at the Slytherin table at the other side of the Great Hall, Mac was trying to get Sev to talk.

"Hogsmeade is next weekend, Sev," Mac prodded. Sev just nodded.

"So, are you going with anyone?" Apparently, bluntness was best in this case. Sev turned to stare at Mac, one eyebrow raised, quite obviously, albeit wordlessly, asking why she wanted to know. She punched him lightly on the arm, saying, "What? I want to know!"

"No. Why, are you?" He returned. She shook her head, but then got distracted by s commotion over at the Gryffindor table.

Poking Sev in the side, she said, "Hey look, the Potter and Evans show is starting."

Those two got in a fight over breakfast at least a few times a week, and the fights were usually started by Potter declaring his undying love in more and more spectacular ways. Today it was a serenade. Evans stared at the singing Potter, who was now standing on the table in front of her, got up, and exited the Great Hall. Mac snorted as Potter leapt off of the table to chase after her. Those two would never change. "Come on, Sev. We have to get to Transfiguration."

Over the next few weeks, it turned out that a few girls had invited Sev to Hogsmeade, but he had turned them all down, holding up his statement that he didn't want a fan club. These girls had ignored him until he had changed his appearance, so they obviously didn't care about him. And all of the guys in the school were much too afraid to ask Mac out, either because she was a supposedly evil Slytherin or because they knew that the other Slytherins would beat them if they asked out the "mudblood." So, in the end, they were both going alone, so they decided to hang out.

**A/N Now review, darn it!**


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